This invention is directed to warp-knit two-way stretch fabrics wherein the elastic yarn is laid into the fabric.
Elastic warp-knit fabrics in which the elastic yarn is knit into the stitches of the fabric generally contain about 15%-20% by weight of such yarn in order to display sufficient stretch and recovery power. The cost of such fabrics can be reduced by use of a lower elastic yarn content, as could be obtained by laying the elastic yarn into the fabric rather than knitting the yarn thereinto. However, the laid-in construction usually has the disadvantage of elastic yarn stripback (slippage). U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,154 discloses a warp-knit two-way stretch fabric containing laid-in elastic yarns in which the ground construction consists of a pair of inelastic yarns, and one of these inelastic yarns makes a full wrap around the elastic yarn in every two courses of the ground construction for the purpose of avoiding stripback. Among the disadvantages of this fabric, however, are the expense of the need to use a three-bar knitting machine to produce the fabric and for some applications, the cover of the elastic yarn by the inelastic yarn, and the opacity of the fabric is less than desired.